Yellowjacket Baseball Drops Two (2/24/06)
Box Score 1
Box Score 2

NAMPA, ID –   Nerves may have gotten the best of the Yellowjacket baseball team as they fell 6-3, 10-0 to Northwest Nazarene University in their opening double-header of the season.  MSU Billings was playing its first baseball game since the program was dropped in 1975.  The Jackets are 0-2 to start the season and have yet to play a Heartland Conference game.  The Crusaders improved to 4-6 overall.

“It was evident that we were nervous and didn’t play with confidence,” said Yellowjacket head coach Chris Brown.  “We did a lot of things right, just not enough.  We were unable to put together a solid inning.”

In game one the Yellowjackets Mike Wardell (So., Billings, MT) was 3-for-4 and earning two runs.  Willie Crtalic (Jr., Billings, MT) was 2-for-4 hitting a home run and earning an RBI.  Nick Hoskyn (Jr., Oelwein, IA), Jake Samuelson (Jr., Helena, MT), and Doug Longfellow (Jr., Lewistown, MT) each got a hit.  Kyle McBride (Jr., Billings, MT) took the loss pitching 6.1 innings, giving up eight hits and five runs.  Kevin Roberts (Jr., Terry, MT) pitched 1.2 innings and gave up one run on three hits. 

Joe Ferguson (Jr., Robbins, CA) went 1-for-3 in game two hitting a double.  Wardell was 1-for-2 and earned his second stolen base of the day.  Josh Wiley (Jr., Belgrade, MT), Patrick Smith (So, Flagstaff, AZ), and Longfellow each got a hit.  Pitcher Chris Martin (Jr., Billings, MT) took the loss giving up five runs on eight hits. 

“We had first day jitters and hopefully we got them out of the way,” added Brown.  “Tomorrow is another game and hopefully we can improve.”

The Yellowjackets will play another double-header against the Crusaders Saturday.  Nathan Herbig (Jr., Noxon, MT) will start the first game and David Ducharme (Sr., Hamilton, MT) will start the second game.  First pitch is at 11:00 a.m. MST.